Review: Midnight at the Wandering Vineyard by Jamie Raintree

Midnight at the Wandering Vineyard by Jamie Raintree

Published: March 26, 2019

Publisher: Graydon House

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

A young woman who reconnects with her estranged best friend to complete their teenage bucket list, but the man who came between them years ago reappears to challenge their bond once again.

A young woman at a crossroads in her life returns home to her family's vineyard in California when tragedy strikes and reconnects with her estranged childhood best friend. They decide to complete the bucket list they created the summer they were 18, the summer that saw their friendship torn apart. But when the man who came between them all those years ago reappears, it challenges their fragile new bond and pushes each woman to confront past hurts and buried truths.

My Thoughts

With the beautiful California wine country as its background, we meet Mallory who comes back home after 10 years and realizes how much home really does mean to her. She has been living in NYC and now that she is home she tries to reconnect with a friend and a guy, one she wronged and one who wronged her.

Mallory is there to celebrate her family vineyard and also wants to try and reconnect with a friend, one who was everything to her but she was young and let a guy come between them. It wasn't about the guy but more about their friendship and now hopes that time and forgiveness can heal old wounds. However, now that she is there the same guy is also there and it seems like history might repeat itself once again.

While this story is somewhat about romance what I really loved about this was the friendship aspect of it. Two life long friends who experienced things together but when one fell in love she let everything and everyone fall to the wayside and let her emotions take over. She left her friend behind in order to chase her dreams while her friend stayed back home and cared for her ailing mother and while her friend felt like she did the right thing she is still somewhat bitter towards Mallory. I also liked how we see these two friends grow and are willing to forgive each other even if it does take awhile. I loved how Mallory is so flawed and real and she makes no mistakes for following her heart. Does she hate that she picked the guy over her friend? Yes, but she was young and when you're young, love is all you think about, but now she wants to rectify her mistakes.

Midnight at the Wandering Vineyard is a wonderfully written tale about friendship, forgiveness and finding yourself. Jamie Raintree also gives us flawed but rich characters that many of us can relate to. This is a great novel about coming of age and learning that it's never too late to try to make things right.